Revitalizing Degraded Soils with Agroforestry Interventions: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Direction

Soil degradation is a major environmental issue affecting agricultural productivity, food security, and ecosystem services. Agroforestry, a land-use system that integrates trees, crops, and/or livestock in a single management unit, has been recognized as a promising approach for restoring degraded soils. Agroforestry systems provide multiple benefits, including improved soil fertility, increased biodiversity, enhanced ecosystem services, and diversified livelihoods. Agroforestry has been used for restoring degraded mining soils in India, waterlogged soils in Bangladesh, and degraded grasslands in China. Despite the potential of agroforestry intervention for restoring degraded soils, several challenges need to be addressed. These include management complexity, market access, land tenure, and policy issues, as discussed in previous sections. Addressing these challenges will require a concerted effort by stakeholders from different sectors, including farmers, researchers, policymakers, and civil society. The current book chapter provides an overview of the potential of agroforestry intervention for restoring degraded soils and highlights recent research on this topic.